Managing Scarce Resources in the Community College: Strategies for the Department Chair

Abstract

In recent years, the community college and higher education in general has witnessed a decrease in funding at the federal, state, and local levels. Community colleges, in turn, have called on the departmental level administrator to deal with the problem of real or impending budget reductions. Therefore, fiscal management has become one of the primary tasks of these mid-level administrators. The present study examined how specific strategies might be utilized by department chairs to better manage scarce resources while maintaining or enhancing program quality. A sample of 50 department chairs was selected to take part in a 3-round Delphi survey to determine effective resource management. Strategies advocated by the respondents as effective for resource management include addressing issues of human resource management jointly with fiscal issues and relying more heavily on academic program planning at the departmental level. Short-term answers to scarce resource management, such as reduced program offerings and longer work hours, were viewed as problematic and not the solution to maintaining quality programs.Community and junior colleges have assumed responsibility for providing postsecondary education opportunities to over half of all college students. In the provision of these educational opportunities, two-year colleges have been noted as the innovative and dynamic leaders in both vocational and avocational education. Additionally, work in distance learning, technologies and programs, continuing professional education, and community service programs serve as indicators of the continued growth and expansion of community colleges. Consistent with these trends, the community college sector of higher education anticipates continued expansion during the next decade.

Transactional and Stopgap Relationships Between Community College Department Chairs and Their Adjuncts

“…It was found that collaborative leadership is the most effective style for a community college chair and that community college chairs experience challenges in leading curriculum (Albashiry et al, 2015;Eager Sirkis, 2011). Additional older studies include community college chair perceptions of financial issues (Miller & Seagren, 1997), faculty empowerment through leadership (McArthur, 2002), mid-level management development (Spangler, 1999), and managing resources (Miller, 1998). Each of these studies profiles the challenges and limitations of being a community college chair, which was also consistent with findings of more recent surveys (Paape et al, 2021;Prentice & Guillaume, 2021) In small sample of approximately 34 participants, it was found that community college department chairs may typically enter the position in their mid-40s, remain in the role at least 5 years, hold master's degrees, and are equally likely to hold any of the three academic professor ranks (Prentice & Guillaume, 2021).…”